- Twitter Blue is now available in every country.
- As a result, legacy verification will be retired from 1st April 2023.
- The legacy verification system is being retired because it is “corrupt” according to Elon Musk, who never explains why it’s corrupt.
The most confusing Hail Mary play in big tech in recent months was Elon Musk’s decision to tie verification on Twitter to Twitter Blue.
Since taking ownership of the platform, Musk has argued that the old verification system was “corrupt” without offering reasoning as to why the system was corrupt. From where we’re sitting both left and right leaning accounts were verified under the old system so we’re not sure where corruption comes into play.
Regardless, Twitter Blue is now available globally meaning anybody can now get a verification mark, so long as they have the money to pay a monthly subscription.
“On April 1st, we will begin winding down our legacy verified program and removing legacy verified checkmarks,” the Twitter Verified account tweeted.
For R144.99 per month Twitter Blue subscribers not only get verification but also the ability to craft tweets 4 000 characters long, the ability to set an NFT as a profile picture, the chance to edit a tweet five times within 30 minutes of sending, and 1080p video uploads. Other features such as priority in mentions and only being fed half of the usual advertising are marked as “coming soon” and have been for months now.
This tiny feature set may be one reason folks aren’t chomping at the bit to sign up for Twitter Blue. According to documents seen by The Information in February, Twitter Blue has as few as 290 000 subscribers globally.
While this figure will more than likely increase now that the subscription platform is global, we have to wonder by how much and more importantly, if it can make a dent in Twitter’s climbing debt balance.
Organisations will still have to apply to be verified over on this page. This verification costs $1 000 per month (~R18 000) so it’s likely only something larger businesses can consider.
